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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Bumping this thread, since it looks we’ve locked this guy in for another four years. [/quote]

Or are you bumping because you don't like the Nottingham proposal and it's time to rally around this flag again?[/quote]

I was thinking more of the persistent COVID learning loss and no plan for addressing it, the “inclusive” yet clearly unconstitutional religious holiday policy, the tendency to follow fads, and the singular focus on growing the Syphax job machine to the detriment of keeping qualified teachers in the classrooms. But sure, let’s throw in garbage planning too.

Duran is doing a bang up job at creating an equitably bad situation across the county. Goal achieved.

[/quote]

I'll believe the situation is equitably bad everywhere when the 22207s and the like save their strong pushbacks for the bigger issues that matter to the 22204s and the like.[/quote]

[b]When the 22207s rightly observe that the low income 22204s generally do not want their kids bussed across the county where they can’t pick them up in an emergency, you accuse the 22207s of being privileged and cynical and trying to protect their “bubble.”[/b]

There are plenty of households in 22204 that are capable of communicating their own needs. More than a small number are well educated and well off. They can speak for themselves about what they want and I will support them. But I’m not carrying their water for them. [/quote]

Uh, no. I never did that.

As to your second comment, yes, there are a lot of capable 22204 people. And you know what? they HAVE spoken out MANY times. But guess what happens. The 22204s (and 02's and 06's) get dismissed. They are patronized by staff and board members in conversations. Their "asks" are outweighed by more obnoxious voices or special interests.

So, again, I'll believe the situation is equitably bad everywhere when the 22207s and the like save their strong pushbacks for the bigger issues that matter to the 22204s and the like....and join the southies in their advocacy.[/quote]

What issues matter to the 22204s that are getting drowned out? [/quote]

De-segregating the schools
Making boundaries that don't increase already high FRM rates while lowering already low FRM rates
Unequal enrichment and other opportunities and resources - because PTAs can't afford what others farther north provide for their schools
Crowding - which only brings out the north when it's their schools that are crowded
There's the whole Career Center/comprehensive high school with equal amenities mess
Achievement levels of students
Is that enough to get started?
[/quote]

I’m in the north. We were severely overcrowded way before you were. No one in the south or anywhere else cared about the overcrowding in our schools. Not APS. Not the Board. [/quote]

+1. The entitlement from these people astounds me. They must think we are all bored housewives who have nothing better to do and have all the time in the world to take up the mantle for every group in Arlington. Otherwise we are privileged snobs.

I work, folks. If I have to give up what little leisure time I have to lobby on behalf of my kids, you can too. [/quote]

Right. The South and Central parents didn't support the North back when we were really really overcrowded, but now we are supposed to spend our spare time lobbying to support initiatives to decrease overcrowding in the South, and we are bad people if we don't.

It's all the more rich when it's the white upper income people in the south who are saying it. [/quote]

How did the south not support the north when they were overcrowded?  and when was that, exactly? I don't recall y'all northerners volunteering to bus your kids down to less crowded southern schools.

I recall the south supporting the program moves to make room for the very crowded NE quadrant.
The south has advocated for a 4th comprehensive high school to alleviate the crowded high schools everywhere.
[/quote]

I think you're reading into this too far. I was responding to the southie who said S. Arlington cares about "Crowding - which only brings out the north when it's their schools that are crowded"

I merely pointed out that the Southies didn't care about overcrowding in the north back in the years when the North was overcrowded and the South was not. So what exactly do they now expect the Northies to do for them? [/quote]

Also I am talking waaaay back before the program moves. If that's as far back as you go, you haven't been paying attention for very long.

Are you completely unaware that the south OPPOSED a fourth comprehensive high school at the CC site? [/quote]

I've been around since about 2009. So just how far back do you have to go to prove your point?
And, actually, yes - I am unaware the south opposed a fourth comprehensive high school at the CC site because they actually did NOT oppose a fourth comprehensive high school at the CC site. [b]There was division regarding the "how" and the on-site amenities; but they did not oppose a comprehensive high school. The SB squelched that original plan because of COST. And then SB decided we don't need a 4th comprehensive high school.[/b] [/quote]

This is also how I remember it. [/quote]

Right, the cost to build an “equitable” high school was, of course, prohibitive. [/quote]

The Southies would not "accept" a 4th neighborhood HS at the CC unless it had a very long list of amenities to make it "equitable." Those included a swimming pool, track, full size gymnasium and auxiliary gymnasium, multi-sport rectangular field with bleachers, at least one additional dedicated field on-site or within walking distance, theater, and library/media center, etc.

They said if we don't get all these amenities, which were very obviously not feasible at the CC site, then don't build a neighborhood HS.

And APS caved to them.

[/quote]

No, not at all.  We saw design plans that were for a full 4th High School at the site, (including all of what you call “amenities” -  in reality; requirements to have the full high school designation instead of “program”).  It was decided, that there was no money for it.  The cost was the end of those plans.  [/quote]

Yes it was really a smart strategy:
1. Make sky high demands for amenities that you simply must have
2. Insist APS give you the amenities because Equity
3. Tell them if you don't give us a high school with all our required amenities, we won't stand for it (there was even a protest outside of a board meeting!)
4. Oh you can't afford to build a high school with all our required amenities? And the plans will be shelved? Not our decision! 
[/quote]

Another incredulous northern perspective. 
As the PP correctly points out, there are certain things/amenities needed to make it a neighborhood school v. program. The only "luxury" amenity SOME insisted on was an on-site swimming pool. 
Guess what? Again, as has been stated multiple times, EVEN WITHOUT THAT POOL (OR A FULL STADIUM for that matter) the SB decided it was too expensive. 
As a member of the original working group for that plan, I assure you that there was ZERO --- ZERO -- anticipation that the entire project would be "shelved." That site is expensive to redevelop no matter what. We never thought for an instant that all of the work we put into it would be entirely dismissed and no version of what we considered would go forward.
Perhaps if the NORTH had bothered to SUPPORT the south, there would be a larger Arl Tech and Career Center opening by now. Or even a smaller-scale (ie, not every single amenity on site) neighborhood high school opening this fall. Instead, we have another expensive, inadequate and inefficient "plan" that does little overall, though maybe the AT and CC students will finally get a decent building. Ironically, probably the most expensive for the fewest people APS has, or ever will, build.[/quote]

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